Cinema Alliance Movie Reviews

The Oscar committee loves this kind of film. After watching The King’s Speech, it’s easy to see why…

The storyline follows King George VI who reluctantly accepts his role as the king after his older brother is unable to step up and assume the role. As you might imagine, this task bears great weight on George who questions himself as a leader. Moreover, the king has a studdering problem which impedes on his communication skills, this is especially impactful since the time period hits during the golden age of radio, before TV. Another factor in here is that Hitler has risen to power and is about to make a mess of things for England.

Since communication is such a crucial component to the country’s confidence in the king, a speech therapist is hired to work with the king on his impediment.

Now, this premise might sound a little boring but due to the excellent writing and performances involved, the movie flows through each moment in a way that is constantly entertaining. Then there’s the visual aspect. Each scene is extremely detailed with the clothing and the environments reflecting the 1930’s to a t.

Going back to the performances. The highlights for me were Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush, both at the top of their game. Colin Firth sets the bar as King George with Rush’s speech therapist his equal. The supporters in here are no slouches with Guy Pearce as the king’s brother and Helena Bonham Carter as his wife, both of which are excellent. Timothy Spall as Winston Churchill was a great choice here too. Exceptional casting to say the least.

Tom Hooper directs doing an outstanding job as the storyteller behind this historical piece. Interestingly, Hooper studied English at Oxford University.

The film won 4 Oscars for a reason, take a look and you’ll understand.

reviewed by Sean McKnight

The posters say “nowhere is safe”. Hogwarts is under the control of Voldemort, so is the Ministry of Magic, so is the general world of Harry Potter. It’s been said before because each book/movie keeps getting progressively darker, but it’s true, this one is the darkest one yet. Bleak in fact at times.

This time ’round, Harry and his friends Ron and Hermione are on the run ousted from their normal lives, hunted by death eaters, and searching for the illusive Horcruxes, the items they need to destroy in order to defeat the Dark Lord. And that’s pretty much the story line. By now, everyone knows where this is going so I’ll just say it starts and ends with that theme and move on.

The pacing of the movie was interesting as it starts off pretty intensely, continues with plenty of tension but then eases up a bit and gets further into character development, more than we’ve seen in some of the more recent films. They’ve all had character development as everyone gets older, but this one gets a bit deeper inside more people’s heads other than Harry. I really enjoyed the compelling storyline and the director’s visual style which complement each other well.

JK Rowlings continues with the good guy killings as more characters bite the bullet. You’ll have to see it to find out who gets taken down this time as the body count continues to add up. I have to admit that her tendency to kill so many characters kind of pisses me off; but then again in every war there are casualties.

The performances of the actors are spot on as always. This is a terrific ensemble and never fails to deliver. Director David Yates keeps everyone on their toes and it shows. The usual cast is here: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Alan Rickman, Robbie Coltrane, Helena Bonham Carter, and Ralph Fiennes (I always thought he’s a superb casting choice for Voldemort). John Hurt, Rhys Ifans, and Bill Nighy join this excellent cast.

Go see it in the theater, it’s Harry Potter and there’s only one more left. Dammit.

reviewed by Sean McKnight

I have to say I’ve been looking forward to this film for quite some time once I heard of Tim Burton’s involvement. I’m a big Tim Burton fan and thought he would do a great job with his interpretation of the book, and he didn’t disappoint.

The actors are excellent: Mia Wasikowska plays the role of Alice well as a coming into her own character that’s dealing with a bit of an identity crisis, especially after continually being told she’s the “wrong” Alice which echos sentiments from earlier parts of the film. Helena Bonham Carter plays the Red Queen spot on dialing things up when she should (OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!!!) and dialing back at the right times. Crispin Glover plays the role of Stayne convincingly as an obnoxious out for himself villain. And Johnny Depp as the hatter – well, he’s Johnny Depp which in itself is a compliment, the guy just can seem to do no wrong in the characters he portrays. The only actor I thought was OK but not great was Anne Hathaway who’s White Queen I felt was a bit stiff and forced. There were also some CG characters in here played by: Alan Rickman, Stephen Fry, Timothy Spall, and Matt Lucas, all of whom turned in fine performances (especially Alan Rickman as the hookah smoking Blue Catepillar).

If you’re a fan of the story try to catch this in digital 3-D, just try to time your arrival at the theater after the onslaught of commercials so it doesn’t effect your enjoyment of the film (see my rant about AMC). Otherwise be sure to check it out on DVD or PPV.

reviewed by Sean McKnight

I just caught this again recently and wanted to write it up for the blog, so here we go…

Mark Wahlberg plays Izzy, the singer of a local tribute band that covers his favorite band named Steel Dragon. The story is supposed to be roughly based on Judas Priest, who went through a situation similar with their singer (Rob Halford) when he left the band; they filled the vacated slot with a singer from a Judas Priest tribute band. The story of Rock Star follows the same premise.

Once Wahlberg is in the band, the story turns in more of a sex, drugs and rock and roll direction with a behind the scenes view of the women, the tours and the over the top lifestyle so many people have dreamed of through rock and roll. Of course the ultimate destination of this lifestyle doesn’t turn out so well and drama ensues. The relationship between Wahlberg and his girlfriend (Jennifer Aniston) is put to the test through the process of them dealing with events that are consequence of the formulaic rock star lifestyle.

All-in-all a pretty well told story and entertaining to watch. It’s a bit typical with no surprises but is still worth checking out. The ending is a bit cliche’ but is pulled off well.

The cast does great in their roles and includes Jennifer Aniston as Izzy’s girlfriend, Timothy Spall (Peter Pettigrew/Wormtail from the Harry Potter films) and the rest of Steel Dragon including: Jason Bonham (son of Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham), Jeff Pilson (Dokken, Foreignor), Zakk Wylde (Ozzy, Black Label Society) and Dominic West (300, HBO’s The Wire), the only other actor in the group next to Wahlberg.

The music is a large part of the experience and includes a healthy dose of heavy metal / hard rock some of it even sung by Mark Wahlberg who does a great job with the vocals surprisingly. I say surprisingly because during some of the behind the scenes footage, Wahlberg complains about metal and mentions how much more he’s about hip-hop. Personally I’d take his vocals in Steel Dragon any day over Marky Mark (seriously dude, Marky Mark? Really? Let it go.).

reviewed by Sean McKnight